I do all of my invoicing through WooCommerce, then I enter the completed transactions into free online Wave accounting software. WAVE offers its own invoicing service, but I prefer to use Woo for several reasons:
- Minimizing costs
- Branded My Account section where clients can view their order histories
- Download tailored PDF versions of invoices
- Choices with payment systems
- Accepting orders online with custom rules
I use a free plugin for adding the PDF capability called WooCommerce PDF Invoices & Packing Slips.
Here’s a few notes about selling service line items in Woo:
- Products must be enabled as Virtual so they don’t try to apply shipping.
- Order must be in On Hold or Pending Payment status to be fully editable.
- Add line item titles and descriptions Meta using the edit pencil icon on each line item.
- Denote discounts by changing the price of the line items – discount then shows up.
- You can log partial payments from other sources by adding a Fee line item and entering a description and a negative price.
- Use Order Notes and the Order Actions drop down to email the customer with updates.
It’s also common to integrate Woo with accounting software (e.g. QuickBooks, Wave) to automate the workflows with your back end financial system.
